How do you sell something you wouldn't buy yourself ?

Whenever I have been canvassing, I have always seen signs on doors saying "We do not buy or sell at this door", or "No canvassers". These people require special thought and some local knowledge before I decide whether to knock or not. If I do, I stress that "I'm not selling", which is a statement of fact whilst also being a little bit untrue, as I am in fact trying to sell the idea of voting for me, or a colleague. The main thing is that I believe in the thing I am selling. I think that is key to any good sales job, that you have to believe in the product you are selling.

So how on earth does Simon Hughes sell a policy to students that he himself did not support ?

Simon is in real danger of making himself look like a fool by choosing to take on the job of promoting a policy which the government have singularly failed to sell to the electorate and to students in particular. It may well be the case that what was passed is better for students than what went before, but this should have been explained and made clear by government. By palming off this job to Simon Hughes, they make the task of Simon holding on to his seat at the next election extremely difficult indeed.

The big issue for me, if I were a student, is how on earth could I be convinced by a policy when the person selling the policy to me didn't support it himself ?

Again, our party is made to look like a bunch of hypocrites. We had half our party break a pledge on student funding a month ago, and now those pledge breakers seek to drag down someone who did keep to his pledge.

Is it any wonder we sit at 8% in the opinion polls ?

I could certainly go canvassing for support for myself in 2010 as I believe in what I am selling. However, I couldn't bring myself to canvass for "the party" in 2010, after all, how can you sell a product you wouldn't buy yourself ?

Where would the Lib dems be without Simon Hughes ?

I wonder how many activists and campaigners like me remain comfortable in the Lib Dems because Simon Hughes dares to say what many of our MPs are unwilling to say or actually have bought in to the coalition with the Tories so much, they actually don't want to say.

Today Simon says we will not enter in to an electoral pact with the Tories. We will stand candidates against the Tories, and it is part of our constitution that we have to field candidates.

Of course, this is not to say that the Tories will field candidates against Lib Dems, indeed, it probably suits the Tories more to step aside in seats where Labour could get back in. But from a Lib Dem point of view, and for those of us fighting Tories in local government, it is very nice to know Simon Hughes is fighting on behalf of activists.

Why do some journalists use The Daily Mail as a source of information about the Lib Dems ?

I was annoyed but not surprised to hear Radio Five Live presenter Nicky Campbell interviewing Simon Hughes today not on the basis of what Simon had to say, but on the basis of a series of character assassinations by national newspapers that clearly have an axe to grind with Simon Hughes.

The fact that Nicky Campbell used the Daily Mail as the main source of his attack on Simon should leave nobody in any doubt that Mr Campbell is in need of some journalist's qualifications and should have been consigned to Radio Two when his Radio One days were behind him and he should not have been put in to a prime slot like the Breakfast Show on Five Live.

Anybody who thinks that quoting the official mouthpiece of the Tory Party is clever, objective or even worthwhile in such circumstances shows his or her limitations as a journalist for everyone to see.